Have you heard the story about the $2,000 light bulb incident?

It’s a pretty good one, though the moral of the story is a little vague.

It started in March when a mother in Prospect named Brandy Bridges dropped a compact fluorescent bulb in her daughter’s bedroom and it broke on the shag carpet. Now state and federal officials are sealing themselves up in makeshift laboratories and breaking lots of the bulbs in the name of science and saving face.

Bridges knew when the bulb shattered that the mercury inside had spilled onto the carpet and needed to be cleaned up carefully. She resisted the urge to vacuum, made some calls and got in touch with the state Department of Environmental Protection. So far, so good.

The DEP, which didn’t have a lot of experience with shattered compact fluorescent bulbs, told Bridges one option was to call a hazardous materials cleanup contractor, something officials now agree was serious overkill.

She made the call and almost hit the floor herself. The contractor said the cleanup could cost $2,000, Bridges said.

Because she didn’t have two grand to hand over, Bridges sealed up the bedroom with plastic and tape. She also talked to a local newspaper to warn people to think twice about buying the bulbs.

DEP officials, meanwhile, tried to assure her there really was no need to spend any money or seal up the room. But she wasn’t about to trust the same government that had urged her to buy the bulb and, in her view, was changing its story about how dangerous it was to her daughter.

The DEP eventually did help her clean it up. They removed part of the carpet a couple of weeks ago, though officials say that was only necessary because the mercury sat for two months.

In the meantime, the news story about Bridges’ predicament took a few spin cycles around the Internet. Instead of a story about overreaction to a minor spill, it became a warning against buying fluorescent bulbs that might poison your home and break your bank account.

The $2,000 light bulb cleanup cost even rose to the status of an urban legend on www.snopes.com.

Both the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have since clarified their advice about what to do if a bulb breaks. Basically, it’s this: open a window, scrape or sweep up the glass, use tape or wet cloth to pick up the dust, seal everything in a bag and take it to your town’s universal waste drop-off. Leave your vacuum, and your checkbook, where they are.

The agencies also have been breaking lots of bulbs inside controlled labs – DEP is using part of a warehouse in Augusta. The researchers try different ways to clean them up from wood floors and various types of carpet and then measure mercury levels in the air.

Since apparently no one has tried this before, state officials around the country are waiting for the results of the studies. The last thing they want is an embarrassing story like this coming out of their state.

When dealing with a concerned mother and the World Wide Web, a mixed message can be a lot harder to cleanup than a shattered light bulb.

Here is the DEP's official version of the story and it's cleanup advice. Here is the EPA's cleanup advice.

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